Nawaz Corruption Case: Robert Radley Recorded Statement

Islamabad (February 22, 2018): UK based witness Robert Radly has recorded his statement in the accountability court in Nawaz Sharif, Family corruption case on Thursday evening through video link.

According to the details, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented a key witness forensic expert Robert Radley, who told the court on Thursday that the Calibri font was available in 2005, albeit on a limited scale.

Radley, principal of his own firm Radley Forensic Document Laboratory, had claimed that the type font used in trust deeds of two companies was Calibri which was not commercially available before Jan 31, 2007.

NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi, Investigation Director Amjad Majeed and the representatives of the accused were present at the Pakistan High Commission in London, where the recording took place and transmitted live to the court.During the hearing, Radley said that he examined the possible change in the dates on the declaration papers of Nelson and Nescol.

During his testimony before the court, Radley said that the dates were changed on the pages two and three of the declaration.

Radley said that page two and three of both the declarations seemed similar and it is hard to tell the fake from the original.

He explained that 2004 was changed into 2006 in the documents, adding that most likely ‘4’ was in place of ‘6’ in the year.

The documents had four stapler holes instead of two, said the witness, adding that it seemed that to change the documents the corner piece was opened.He further said that he examined the typing font of the documents as well.

After the The witness was also questioned in relation to the availability of the Calibri font available on Windows Vista.

Calibri font — in which the documents were typed — was not present on a commercial basis until January 31, 2007.

Radley in his testimony said that the declaration could not have been prepared commercially before January 31, 2007.

Haris asked the witness if Vista was released in three different editions, to which the Radley replied in the positive.The defence counsel then asked if the first proper edition of the operating system was released on January 31, 2007. The witness confirmed the first edition was released on the date and also replied to another question by saying that a pre-launch beta version of the Vista was released in 2005 for IT experts.

Referring to the Calibri font, Haris asked if the pre-launch version had the font present, to which Radley replied and said the font was indeed included, however, it was limited to developers and IT experts.

Questioning further, the defence asked if thousands of people could have had access to the font in its pre-release version. The witness said that that would not be correct to say as testing was being conducted on a limited scale.

Earlier, Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Haris objected to the presence of NAB officials in London.The judge remarked that a representative of the accused was also present in court to maintain balance, to which Haris responded that the representatives were just there for observation.

Moreover, former head of the Panama case joint investigation team, Federal Investigation Agency Additional Director Wajid Zia, was in court after having been summoned at the last hearing.

Ordering Nawaz’s disqualification in the Panama Papers case on July 28, 2017, the Supreme Court had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file three references against the Sharif family and ordered the trial court to wrap up the proceedings in six months.

The proceedings are conducted by Judge Muahamad Bashir. Former Panama JIT Head Wajid Zia appeared before the court to testify in the case.

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On Thursday morning, the accountability court hearing references against the former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Capt retd Safdar reserved its verdict and adjourned its hearing for 1:30 PM.

Two new witnesses — forensic expert Robert Radley and solicitor Akhtar Raja — will record their statement via video-link from UK.

NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi and the representatives of the accused will be present at the Pakistan High Commission in London, where the recording will take place and be transmitted live to the court here.

Earlier today, as the hearing went underway, Nawaz’s counsel Ayesha Hamid argued against the Al Azizia and Flagship supplementary references filed by NAB recently.Hamid claimed that there is nothing new in the supplementary references.

She also pleaded the court to ask the monitoring judge of the case, Supreme Court Justice Ijazul Ahsan, to extend the six-month deadline, saying recording statements of 16 new witnesses will take time and should not be taken lightly.

The NAB prosecutor opposed the plea after which the judge reserved his decision and may announce it when the hearing resumes at 1:30pm.

The counsel argued further that the court should excuse the accused from appearing again today. The judge then asked the counsel to submit a written request in this regard with reasons. The court will rule on the matter later today.